


In my mother’s eyes

by Phantomxlegend



Series: Percy Jackson one-shots :p [136]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Grief, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, In the Beginning, Kinda, M/M, Mentions of Death, Whump, Will Needs a Hug, breakdowns, but it’s a minor character, hurt will solace, kinda depitions of a panic attack, not really any comfort, theres a bit of fluff, will solace angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28006593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantomxlegend/pseuds/Phantomxlegend
Summary: Will wanted to surprise his mother for her birthday by paying a surprise visit.  He finds out about something else...
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Percy Jackson one-shots :p [136]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701808
Comments: 21
Kudos: 82





	In my mother’s eyes

**Author's Note:**

> You thought you’d get fluff after yesterday’s fic?? Well you were wrong.
> 
> Ouch though, I can confirm that when I thought of this I had to take a moment and just like keel over.

“My mom’s birthday is coming up,” Will leaned his head off the side of Nico’s bed, “I’m gonna surprise her with a visit.”

Nico looked up from the box he was looking through, “when’s her birthday?”

“This Sunday,” Will said, he rolled over onto his stomach a small smile crossing his lips, “I already talked to Chiron and everything. He said it was okay.”

“Sounds fun,” Nico chuckled, “one of these times you’re going to have to take me to Texas to meet your mom.”

“Oh? You’re getting serious?” Will teased, leaning his chin on his hands, swinging his legs in the air. Nico blushed and hid his face in his hoodie.

“Shut up you dork,” Nico muttered. He shuffled through his box, avoiding looking at Will.

“I’ll get you something from Texas,” Will said, “I’m the best at getting gifts.”

“Focus on spending time with your mom,” Nico waved his hand dismissively, closing the flaps of the cardboard box and shoving it back under his bed, “you haven’t seen her in a long time.”

“I can’t wait,” Will made grabby hands at Nico, “I’ve missed my mom and with how communications have been recently, none of my letters had gotten to her.”

Nico nodded thoughtfully, “I can imagine.”

Will’s expression shifted, “sorry, I forgot about your family…” he muttered, scratching his cheek. Nico shrugged listlessly.

“It’s okay,” Nico reassured him, “you gotta enjoy your time with your mom. It sounds like fun.” 

Will grinned thoughtfully, still swinging his legs in the air, “my mom is the best. She’s got an amazing voice and her singing is so good. Obviously, that’s how she got the attention of Apollo.”

“She sounds lovely.”

“Yeah,” Will’s cheeks heated up, he tilted his head to the side, “anyway, that’s this weekend, it’s still a while away.”

“Mhm.”

* * *

Before Will had left (He’d gotten Argus to drive him a bit of the way and then Will would take a bus), he had gone to Nico, kissing him on the cheek.

“What are you gonna do while I’m gone?” Will asked playfully, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

“Wait for you to get back,” Nico joked, poking Will in the ribs.

“Don’t get anyone killed while I’m gone,” Will said, “hopefully the camp won’t all go into shambles without their best healer.”

“Take a break, enjoy yourself.” 

“Of course,” Will rocked back and forth on his feet. He had gone to visit his mom before so he knew what buses to take and how to get there. The promise of seeing his mom made energy bubble in the pit of his stomach. 

Argus was waiting impatiently by the van when Will said actual goodbyes to Nico. The drive was silent, Will watched out the window, the only thing that he could hope for was that there wouldn’t be any monster attacks.

* * *

Will enjoyed riding in vehicles, he especially liked looking out the window and watching the scenery pass. Yet, he was relieved when he finally got to the last bus stop, it was pretty late in the afternoon and he was getting more excited by the second.

The route from the bus stop to his home was ingrained in his memory (it was also the bus stop that he went to for school) so he didn’t need to stop to ask anyone. Every time he came back to Texas he thought about his childhood (which had both good and bad effects).

Oddly enough when he stepped up to the front door of his old house, he noticed that the lights were off in the windows. 

Will knocked loudly, knowing that his mother sometimes would be practicing her songs and wouldn’t hear the knock. After a while of standing on the front porch awkwardly, Will knocked again. 

One of the neighbors was out watering the grass with a hose, Will remembered him, he was the type of guy to start mowing the lawn at 6 am. He stared at Will with an unreadable expression. Will raised his hand to wave, cracking a nervous smile.

His heart was hammering in his chest, he realized that his mom might not be home, he hadn’t talked to her in a while so he didn’t really know her performing schedule. 

Will dug up the spare key from the flower garden, which were starting to wilt in the summer heat, Will unlocked the front door, dropping his bag down by the couch.

“Ma?” Will called, “you home?”

There was no response. 

Will toed his shoes off, flicking on the light. There was a line of dust on the counters as he passed into the kitchen. Will chewed on his lower lip, not even considering the possibility that his mother might have gone on a tour. She was a pretty popular singer after all.

Will picked up the landline, leaning against the wall after dialing his mom's number, pressing the phone to her ear.

It went to voicemail.

Will furrowed his eyebrows. He’d wait until tonight to see if she’d come home, then he’d check out the news to see if he had managed to come at the wrong time. A chunk of worry clogged his throat. He thought he could surprise his mom but she might not even be home for her birthday.

To keep himself busy and to keep the boredom away, Will worked to clean the house dusting the furniture and sweeping the floors. Just to give himself something to do.

He noticed that when he opened the fridge, there was very little food, some bottled waters, and a couple of frozen vegetables in the freezer. The pantry was in a similar state, with only some canned food left. That was a bit odd.

On his mother’s desk, Naomi’s notebook was splayed out and papers were scattered (it was a similar look to how Will did paperwork back at camp) with different lyrics and melodies scrawled in messy handwriting. Will would always say that his favorite parts about his mother’s songs, was before it was completed and polished, the messy notes and ideas that were scribbled and the experimental notes that didn’t make the final cut.

All the work that was put into it, refined, scrapped, and then eventually perfected in the songs that were shared in the world. It was his favorite part. Especially when Naomi would sing to him what she had in mind. Those were some of his favorite childhood memories.

Waiting for his mother was a lot harder than he originally expected. He ended up Iris messaging Nico to tell him that he had arrived safely (something that he had forgotten to do when he arrived in Texas… oops) and then going down the hall to his old room.

What was a bit more concerning was the boxes that were piled up in the corners of his bedroom, the walls were stripped bare of all the posters and items that Will has (for a 12-year-old child that only came back in the school year, he had a lot of stuff in his room), and his bedsheets were gone. 

Swallowing his anxiety, he could chalk it up to his mom possibly moving, or she had just decided to pack up Will’s stuff. Will could’ve even assumed that she was pregnant and having another child and needed the extra room (it was a small house).

Will was getting a bit more impatient, and now he was starting to worry. 

On the bathroom counter was another box full of empty pill bottles. From a doctor's standpoint that was worrying. He didn’t remember his mother having any prescriptions.

When he went to his mother’s room, he found it also slightly barren. There was a box sitting on the bed containing a ton of old notebooks and papers from when Naomi would write songs and make music. Her guitars were still hanging on the wall, her favorite one sitting on a stand near her bedside table. But there was something empty about the room. There was dust still on the surfaces and a lot of stuff had been packed up in boxes.

Maybe his mother had been planning on moving… 

Since it was hard to get communications out lately, maybe any letters that Naomi had sent had gotten caught up, the same with Will’s letters. So there had been some miscommunication going on.

Will iris messaged Nico again (thankfully he had actually thought to bring quite a few golden drachmas).

“Hey, everything going alright?” Nico asked.

“Yeah, waiting to see when my mom gets home,” Will said with a chuckle, “I didn’t even think that she might be performing, but the house seems kinda empty so I’m worried that I accidentally caught her when she’s on tour.”

“Oh no,” Nico furrowed his eyebrows, “you have a phone that you could try using to call?”

“Landline yeah, didn’t go through,” Will leaned back, the spray of the kitchen sink making droplets form on his arms.

“Hm…”

“I’m gonna check the news see if there’s anything,” Will laughed, “so what have you been up to between this call and the last?”

“Well, I had dinner,” Nico tilted his head to one side, “tried not to kill anyone, sat with your siblings, and had a grand time. Kayla has taken to teasing me in your absence which is less than desirable. I didn’t almost kill her though.”

“Don’t kill anyone,” Will clicked his tongue, “and maybe I should just stay here if that’s what gets me out of Kayla’s teasing.”

“And you’d leave poor me to take the brunt of it,” Nico pressed a hand to his chest in fake offense.

“I might.”

“How rude, and I thought you loved me.”

“I do, but some time with my Ma sounds really good right now, after everything that’s happened lately,” Will barked a laugh, “she’ll never believe it. I bet she’d love you. Just would love all over you. She’s like that.”

“Something I can look forward to if you’d ever let me come and see her,” Nico said, leaning his elbows on his knees and resting his chin on his hands.

“I will, you’ll meet her one of these days,” Will pursed his lips and glanced over his shoulder, “I’m gonna see if I could make anything for dinner, there isn’t much food in the house so I might have to order something. But I’m getting pretty hungry.”

“Sounds good, have fun.”

Will gave a thumbs up and blew a kiss, Nico blushed and swiped away the mist. Will grinned and mopped up the spilled water with a towel.

He ended up ordering a small pizza since there wasn’t anything that he could make easily from the food that was left in the pantry and fridge. Though he watched a short movie while he ate, occasionally glancing at the front door, hoping that his mom would walk in.

By now the sun had set and it was a little past midnight. Will was starting to get a bit more worried. He knew that concerts went into the late hours of the night, but they didn’t usually go this long. Did they?

Will figured that he should try and get some rest. He’d check the news tomorrow and see if there was anything.

Instead of trying to find some sheets to make up his old bed, he pulled blankets down from the linen closet and slept on the couch, a cheesy rom-com playing in the background on low volume, just to add a bit of noise and contribute a bit of light to the living room.

Will woke up on the floor at almost 10 am, blankets wrapped around his ankles and his face pressed into the side of the couch. The house was silent except for a commercial playing on the tv.

So maybe it wasn’t just a concert… Will thought to himself. He tried to think of the hopeful side, that maybe his mother had seen him and didn’t wake him up, she might be sleeping in her own bed down the hall.

She wasn’t there when he checked.

Will frowned, chewing on his lower lip and risking to use the desktop computer in the office. It wasn’t used much and was on level with the one in the big house made during the dinosaur era. Naomi mostly used the laptop that stayed mostly on the desk in the living room.

He searched his mother’s name, clicking a pen over and over.

Will felt his heart stop at the first headline.

_“Country singer Naomi solace passes away aged 41”_

It was fake news, obviously. It had to be.

The next article had a similar title. 

Will clenched his jaw, the only sound he could hear was the pounding of his own heartbeat and the creaky mouse.

_No, no, no, no, no, it's wrong_

The articles mentioned that she was sick, she had passed away in hospital a few months ago after a year-long fight.

She never said anything about being ill. She even talked about her upcoming performances. The songs that she was working on, in her letters she had included snippets of the lyrics.

Will covered his mouth with one hand, staring at the screen. Tears rolled down his cheeks at an alarming speed, he didn’t make a sound.

_Why didn’t she say anything? Why didn’t she tell me?_

Will had no family that knew of him, they thought he had died at a young age as well.

_I could’ve helped heal her._

His breaths were coming out in short gasps. He coughed, pulling at the ends of his hair. Will tried to think about the last few letters that he had gotten from his mom. None of them had mentioned anything about being sick, nothing about needing help.

_It’s not real, it’s a joke._

The more and more he told himself that it wasn’t real, he found another article saying the same thing. 

The empty house made sense. The scraped out rooms. The boxes. The pills in the bathroom. 

Will could’ve seen it if he wasn’t holding onto that hope his mother would come back.

A sob tore itself from his throat, he curled in on himself, the chair creaking as he sobbed, his head in his hands, his entire body shaking.

He could’ve helped.

Will hadn’t seen his mother since last Christmas. She had seemed fine then. Playing songs and laughing like normal.

Will couldn’t breathe. 

_Why? Why did this happen again? Why can’t the people he loves stay in his life longer?_

In a blind panic, Will found himself in the bathroom, the showerhead spraying water in the tub, making a cloud of mist. Will didn’t even remember saying anything, but then the picture cleared and Nico was on the other side.

“Will?” Nico asked, his voice filled with concern.

“Nico... I…” Will coughed, clawing at his arms, “Nico… my mom… my mom… she—she never…” 

Will was sputtering and coughing, trying to get out a coherent sentence. His brain repeated the headlines over and over in his head, the passages from the text. The same questions. The guilt.

“Hey, slow down, what’s wrong?” Nico was staring at him with a concerned expression, he held his hands up in front of himself like he was going to reach through the picture.

“She never…. Never said that she was sick… she… Nico I…” Will crouched down, the picture out of view now. He sobbed.

“Will, it’s okay, you’re okay,” Nico said, “what happened.”

“I’m not, I’m not, I’m not… not okay… not okay,” Will whimpered.

The last time he had seen his mom was almost over a year ago. Why didn’t she mention anything? Will would’ve come down sooner, even with everything that was happening. Will could’ve helped her, he had magic, he was a doctor. He could’ve done _something_. Anything. Just coming to see her before she died.

“She’s gone… Nico she…. she was sick…” Will coughed out, “I didn’t know… she didn’t… she didn’t tell me… I—“ he swore, tugging at his hair and clenching his teeth.

Nico was smart, he understood the situation all too well.

“Oh my gods, Will,” he muttered, “Will it’s okay.”

“I could’ve—I could’ve helped her Nico!” Will cried, “I’m the son of Apollo! I… I should’ve come and visited sooner.”

Nico didn’t know what to say, “love, do you want me to come over there?” 

Will sat by the edge of the bathtub, his knees pulled up to his chest, his head in his hands, “I don’t know.” His voice cracked. He sobbed harder.

He shouldn’t have changed to being a year-round camper, he could've had more time to spend with his mom if he wasn’t gone all the time. Will should’ve checked in more.

Nico had appeared from the shadows a few moments later, he must’ve disconnected the iris message. Will was hyper-aware of the sound of the water pelting into the walls of the shower, the fact that his arms were bleeding from how hard he was digging his nails into his skin. His scalp was probably bleeding too. He was drenched in his own sweat and tears. 

He was aware of the way Nico had put a hand on his arm, he whispered something that seemed too far away for Will to understand. Reassurances maybe. Will wasn’t listening.

He wasn’t sobbing anymore, but tears ran down his face and his body was wracked with shivers. He hadn’t cried this hard since he had been made head counselor. He didn’t have the energy to move from where he was sitting, he didn’t think that he’d ever have the energy back. 

This was worse.

This was so much worse.

His mother was gone, the woman who he had always looked to for support and guidance. Will knew he could’ve helped her. 

But he wasn’t able to.

It was like every piece of his childhood had finally been lost, every ounce of security that he had that wasn’t involved in his crazy life of monsters and magic was gone. What was there left for him in the mortal world?

**Author's Note:**

> More angst hehe. Poor Will never gets a break. I mean if someone’s gotta make the Will angst, I’m gonna make it hurt like a buttcheek on a stick.
> 
> Love y’all, till the next update.
> 
> Sleeby time


End file.
